With the growth in demand for electric vehicles and mobile devices powered by rechargeable lithium batteries, demand for lithium is expected to increase by over 200% in the next decade. Current lithium production comes primarily from Australia, South America and China. There are significant lithium reserves in the same Saskatchewan aquifers currently being exploited for […]

Beer has been brewed since the dawn of civilization and is composed of only 4 simple ingredients: hops, water, toasted barley (called malt) and yeast. Yeast are the factories that convert chemicals in the starting materials to ethanol and flavors. Not all yeast are the same; over the millennia selection of specific yeast strains for […]

The problem at hand is an inability for municipalities across Canada to audit recycling and waste collection. Auditing comprises both the quantity and type of objects being disposed or recycled. The only existing option is manual, which cannot be applied beyond small intermittent inspections due to the significant cost, time commitment and inefficiency. In this […]

The objective is to develop and implement safe navigation algorithms and frameworks for autonomous cart pullers that are supposed to move planted pots on carts within an unknown and dynamically-changing environment in plant nurseries. The cart puller operation needs to be done safely in an environment that is shared by other vehicles, nursery utilities such […]

The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario reports that the masonry rate group cost per insurance claim is 2.44 times that if all other construction class rate groups. Manual lifting of concrete masonry units is required for masonry construction, and the pay masons receive is often commensurate with the number of units laid per […]

Computer Generated Solutions (CGS) is developing a chatbot to train health-related customer support human agents. In this research, an intelligent sentiment-based chat bot is to be modeled and designed to act as a client to train the client-facing representatives who would be able to help clients more effectively. The main objectives of this internship are […]

Flax seed is of interest as a health food product with high omega-3 fatty acid, protein and fiber content. The seeds naturally contain compound that are anti-nutritive and have a bitter flavor. We have developed a process to safely and cheaply remove these compounds from whole flax seed. We intend to investigate the nutritive qualities, […]

Natural Canadian zeolite is an attractive mineral for the restoration of lands disturbed by the extraction of natural resources such as metals, oil and gas. Dr. Wonjae Chang’s Environmental Engineering Lab developed a dualmineral prototype, using Canadian zeolites, for the desalination of potash brine-impacted water. Dr. Chang also demonstrated the significant accumulation of residual potassium […]

VeriGrain is in the agricultural automated sampling and data management business. By providing representative sampling of the harvested grain provides the grain characteristics for maximum profit, helps to determine the risk of spoilage and helps farmers eliminate downgraded and rejected loads of grain at the terminal. Currently the samples are taken at the farm and […]

Precision agriculture is the technique to replace traditional farming methods to sustainably improve crop productivity and ensure food security without adversely impacting the environment. Pure Roots Holdings Canada Inc. is managing an ecosystem that encapsulates 0.4 acres of the effective farming area into a modular grow room called AeroPod. AeroPod provides an automated, modular, mobile, […]

A variety of alternative strategies have been developed for increasing the service life of reinforced concrete structures exposed to corrosive environments. An optimum design or repair strategy requires not only an estimate of upfront costs, but also the means to compare all associated costs against the potential extension to the life of the structure. Unfortunately, […]

Due to recent outbreaks in livestock viruses (coronavirus PEDV), new sanitization protocols have been implemented for livestock trailers in Canada as a result of our research. These new protocols require that interior surfaces of a trailer be heated to at least 75°C for at least 20 minutes to ensure that all viruses and bacteria of […]